TurboSnail

Lining it up is a bit of a faff, other than that it's quite easy. If you do give it a go, I'd recommend not using the cams I did, as having two different ones made it a bit awkward. The round one seems to work better as you can turn it both ways.

Finally got round to finishing the remote uncoupler installation, which finishes off the track work for now. It's nothing fancy or electronic, just a manual cam-based system made of ice cream sticks and offcuts of wood and metal. This shows how rubbish I am at baseboard planning, having hacked a hole in the supports to fit the system in. Fortunately it's not a wide baseboard, so still has plenty of strength. Lining the whole thing up was a bit of a nightmare, but it seems to work pretty consistently. I tried taking a video with my rubbish phone, but hopefully gives an idea of how it looks. More info in this thread if you're interested: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/113032-remoteautomaticdiy-uncoupling-methods/

Ok, this really is the last post about roads for a while... But at least it's a video! We modellers always test our track when it's been laid, so why not do the same with roads? The road surface seems pretty good for the truck, it has enough grip although still wobbles a bit - I blame Base Toys for not making round wheels. Need to work on that turning circle too!

The downside of making roads by mixing random paints and chemicals together (see my previous blog post) is that somehow it mixed together into a very even colour. I thought it needed toning down, so I decided to go with a wash of grey, this being the simplest method I could think of. Gaugemaster decided to send me a pot of Humbrol no.32 despite me ordering something else, so some of that went in with some white spirit. Before anything dried, I went over the whole area dabbing it with kitchen roll, which seemed to make the effect more subtle and less uniform. I'll freely admit I was making it up as I went along, but it has turned out quite well. One learning point though: if one dabs too vigourously (with the kitchen roll, not the odd arm thing) the colour rubs off and it then gets very difficult to mix in a new patch without there being obvious borders. That should be it for roads - the benefits of having a small layout. I am now desperately looking for other things to weather before my mix dries up...

Thanks, it was completely free! If I can use/recycle stuff into my layout I find it more satisfying - hence papier mache hills and cardboard box buildings also in the images.

One of the major parts missing from the layout was roads. Lots of people have their own preferred methods, including using fine grit sandpaper, textured paints, Bachmann RoadStuffTM (I've no idea what it's actually called) but all of those methods involve either expense, time waiting for internet orders or going outside, so I had to come up with something else. Following a rummage in the garage, I found the ingredients for the rather noxious brew in the photo below: some dulux white matt primer, most of an old brown tester pot (possibly from the 80s?), some completely solidified GreenScene textured road paint (the dark tarmac, I think) and mixed it all together. At this point, it was still way too white and I couldn't locate any black paint - although come to think of it, I shouldn't be surprised as who paints their house black? Slightly desperate, I came across some car bumper restorer blackening wax, from back when I had a mk1 Ford KA with the grey plastic bumpers, and chucked it in. Amazingly, it mixed in ok, as you can see below. There was just enough Greenscene paint to add a bit of texture to the road without going over the top and having a gravel track. Probably due to the unconventional mixture of chemicals, there were a few cracks in the paint after drying, but a second coat sorted this out nicely. It's not the best looking road I've ever seen, but since it was free I'm not complaining, and the next job is to tone it down and mess it up with some washes to get some more variation in the colour.

It's all a bit too fixed to change the track layout now, but I'm not too bothered about it looking perfect - this layout is intended to help me build my skills before I go on to something more ambitious in the future. Also I needed an excuse to run some stock The backscene is a generic Gaugemaster one that looks a bit like some areas of the South Downs in east Kent, so that's where I've set it. Haven't found a suitable 'might-have-been' justification yet though!

So, given I have some free time in the University holidays, I thought I'd have a go at blogging my layout progress (or lack thereof), for two reasons: 1) 'cos it'll give me something to do with myself and 2) so when it inevitably shows how little I've achieved (I am on holiday after all), I'll be motivated to do more. I'm aiming to do weekly updates as I don't want to be too ambitious but who knows where this is going. Maybe I'll be able to get some video in from time to time as well. Might be worth starting with a layout description: the picture above (or wherever it goes on a blog) shows the layout in it's current state - track down and wired, landscaping done and starting on adding roads, buildings and scenic detail. It is just a small shunting plank layout (how very original!), the only fancy thing about it is live frog points, the first time I've ever used them and they seem to be pretty good considering my motive power is small 0-4-0 and 0-6-0s.

Finally got round to taking a video of the uncoupling thing

Great model, adds a surprising amount of character to the scene for such a simple change. How did you get the corners cut out so neat?

Thanks for all the positive comments! It is a 7805 type regulator, I just used what I had lying around. I didn't think of getting a SOIC version, that would have been so much better, fortunately this lorry was big enough to fit it, but I'll try it next time. The steering mechanism is from here. It's a bit expensive but if I'd made it myself it wouldn't have worked nearly as well, I bought a set of their front wheels too to go with it 'cos the Base Toys ones are a bit more egg-shaped than I'd like... TS

I was inspired by this to have a go at making my own, check out the video: I was using fairly cheap R/C gear so I had to get the biggest lorry I could find to fit it all in, but it's not too bad for a first effort (Probably have to full-screen it if you want to see the subtitles, it looked bigger when I was making it...)

Nice to see all the different approaches! As for mine... Prototype No.1 of the cam system is up and running: Turn the axle and the cam lifts the base, which is attached to the cardboard section between the rails. Simple, and works pretty well too, despite being made from a magnum stick, an old offcut of steel rod, some wire and one of those felt pads you put on the feet of furniture! The lifted bit is supposed to look better, but this is only the mk.1. The next ones will be disguised as wooden walkways across the tracks, which hopefully will be less obvious/ The idea seems to be worth pursuing, though.

Having looked at all the various types of uncoupling devices (Kadee, magnets, hand of God, etc.), I thought I'd see if anyone else has a DIY solution for a bit less money! I'm currently working on a version for standard OO tension locks involving cams lifting a piece of cardboard between the tracks - it's very 'bodgy' and I'll post a few images when the damn thing finally works... So any unusual/novel uncoupling methods out there?

This is my first attempt at a loco repaint, quite possibly the opposite of 'tarted up' as it's the most simple livery out there! SECR No. 751, it has a few mods too, like the smokebox front and the boiler side valves were replaced. See the post here and there's still a few little details to go.